Local filmmakers are launching a crowd funding appeal to help bring the story of the Bentley Blockade to the big screen.
They want to create a feature length documentary that tells the story of the blockade and the social movement that led to it.
The proposed film’s director Brendan Shoebridge, a Lismore native, has been following and filming the fight against unconvential gas mining since early 2011.
‘It’s a monster of a project but it feels like the film will come at the right time and crowdfunding is a good fit, given it’s about an inspiring display of community strength,’ Mr Shoebridge said.
‘The northern rivers has an amazing heritage.
‘Most people here have made a conscious choice to live a safe, clean, low-impact lifestyle, so to have the threat of gasfield industrialisation come to the region’s door is a big story.
‘Ultimately it’s about the fight we all face for a safe, clean future so it’s a story that simply must be told.’
Producer Susie Forster said the proposed film was timely.
‘With Metgasco rising from the ashes like a wheezy Darth Vader, the need is more urgent than ever to make a film that will both inform and inspire the world about how our community has, so far, stopped the creeping cancerous spread of gas wells in our region,’ Ms Forster said.
The crowd funding campaign will be launched on planetfunder.org and will run for the month of June.
Funds raised would cover the post-production costs associated with creating a rough cut of the documentary. Further funds would be sought at the end of the year to cover the completion costs.
The film makers said the documentary would be told through the eyes of the ‘protectors’, and would seek to capture was has been described as the ‘Eureka Stockade’ of our time.
Supporters have been invited to join the film makers and the Knitting Nannas Against Gas at the campaign launch on 31 May at the Lismore Workers Club between 2pm and 4pm.
The launch will feature live music and a preview of the film’s teaser.
Anyone unable to attend the launch will be able to donate at planetfunder.org on 1 June.
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